CollisionWorks

For once, I'm actually posting here from Berit's computer with the iTunes playing, not just using it as background music while I putter about the apartment, working on something else, so I'll multitask between my Temptation work (making up one big list of everything left to be done for the show; actually not as big a list as usual) and comment on the songs as they go by this time.



1. "For Once in My Life" - Stevie Wonder - Hitsville U.S.A., The Motown Singles Collection 1959-1971

I sometimes dismiss Stevie Wonder in my head, for no good reason. Yeah, "Superstition" is one of my favorite songs (and one of the first singles I can remember owning), and of course there's "Fingertips" and "Uptight (Everything's Alright)," but I tend to associate him with mellow, syrupy ballads.

Last year, as we were driving to Wisconsin, Berit and I came into Chicago as a couple of local R&B DJs were having an on-air contest to determine who was better, Stevie or Marvin Gaye. I smirked and assumed Marvin (a favorite of mine) would wipe up the floor with Stevie. As the contest went on, it was clear that, even without using any of the "heavy guns" (the great classic hits), Stevie was kicking Marvin's ass, quite soundly. I somewhat had to reevaluate Stevie in my head after that, the man has a DEEP catalogue of great music.

(earlier this year, driving to The Brick, B & I came across a pair of NYC DJs doing pretty much the exact same thing with Gladys Knight and my BELOVED Aretha Franklin . . . and, well, they made a pretty good case for Gladys - they made Berit a believer - but didn't completely move me to "prefer" Ms. Knight, though "And The Pips" nearly tips the balance, Aretha didn't have a "And The Pips" -- Knight's "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" was one of the other first singles I remember having as a small child)

Anyway, this Stevie Wonder song is a mellow ballad, yes, but beautiful sung, written, produced, and arranged, and makes me feel happy to be up and awake this morning.


2. "Dream Lover" - The Packabeats - Highly Strung

This is a strange instrumental. Familiar tune, of course, but the melody is being played on an organ, and in some strange, dissonant way. It sounds like it's double-tracked by the same organ, slightly out-of-tune with itself on each track. Ah, there's a hot guitar solo in there . . . kinda buried, but it's there (this is supposed to be a surf guitar comp, I think). Strange humming in there, too. Odd production. Waitaminute, is this a Joe Meek production? Let me check . . . YES! of course this is Joe Meek. Now I get it.


3. "Beside You" - Iggy Pop - American Caesar

A pleasant ballad from the Igmeister, boringly produced, as most of his music has been since Zombie Birdhouse, but a good song, well-sung. moving. He's made plenty of great tracks in the last 24 years, but most of his ALBUMS tend to disappoint. Good for randomness selection, I guess.


4. "I Am Alone Today" - The Fruit Machine - Tektites Vol. IV

A long-forgotten "psychedelic" track from a downloaded comp of scratchy singles. Nice "heavy" guitar. Not bad. Then it just ends. Fine.


5. "Working Undercover for the Man" - They Might Be Giants - Mink Car

Favorite recent TMBG track, pretty, smart, funny, and slightly ominous (sung from the point of view of a government agent undercover in a rock band, spying on his audience).


6. "Abba Zaba" - Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band - Safe as Milk

Ah! Early Van Vliet! Chugging and fun. This is an upbeat mix this morning. I'm being forcibly put in a good mood.


7. "Just for Fun" - Jonathan Richman - Having a Party with Jonathan Richman

Hunh. And it's Jonathan Richman who adds a sad, mournful note? It nearly sounds like one of JoJo's normal happy songs, but it has a strange, past-tense feel, like the fun is long gone, but it's nice to think of it now. Oh, it's a live recording, too. Didn't remember that.


8. "I'm Gonna Run Away from You" - Tami Lynn - Golden Years 02

Another song from a downloaded comp that I don't know (I like adding music I barely or don't know into iTunes and just having it come up - like listening to the radio sometimes). Good R&B song. Almost girl group. Here's something I found about Tami Lynn.


9. "Because the Night" - Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band - Live 1975-85

I really like Springsteen's songwriting. I really don't like his arrangements/performances, but they're bearable for me in live versions rather than his usually dead, freeze-dried, overthought studio albums. Live, he's got one of the best bar bands in the world, with above-average originals. Patti did this one better, and Springsteen's alterations to the lyrics (or is it restoration to his originals before Smith changed them for her version?) are clumsy. In any version, a damned great chorus there.


10. "Centipede Boogie" -Chet Atkins - Chet Atkins and His Guitar

Man, this cat can play. Aggressively cheery guitar instrumental. Making me happier by the moment. Good way to go out on this list, though the music will play on . . .

More later tonight or tomorrow on recent rehearsals.

Most goes well with the show; and here's what I just sent out to the Gemini CollisionWorks email list:


**********
 
The Havel Festival (a production of Untitled Theatre Company #61)
 
and Gemini CollisionWorks present
 
Temptation
 
by Vaclav Havel
 
translated by Marie Winn
 
designed and directed by Ian W. Hill
assisted by Berit Johnson
 
with
Fred Backus - Eric C. Bailey* - Aaron Baker
Walter Brandes* - Danny Bowes - Maggie Cino
Tim Cusack* - Jessi Gotta - Christiaan Koop
Roger Nasser - Timothy McCown Reynolds* - Alyssa Simon*
 
*member of AEA - Temptation is an Equity-Approved Showcase
 
Thursday, November 2 at 8.00 pm - Saturday, November 4 at 9.30 pm
Wednesday, November 8 at 7.00 - Saturday, November 11 at 9.30 pm
Sunday, November 12 at 8.00 pm - Thursday, November 16 at 8.00 pm
Friday, November 17 at 8.00 pm - Sunday, November 19 at 8.00 pm
and Sunday, November 26 at 8.00 pm
 
at
 
The Brick
575 Metropolitan Avenue
Williamsburg, Brooklyn
(L Train to the Lorimer stop / G Train to the Metropolitan/Grand stop)
 
tickets $18.00 available at the door (cash only)
reservations/credit card orders through Theatermania:
212.352.3101 or www.theatermania.com
 
SPECIAL OFFER TO PEOPLE ON THIS LIST:
 
First three performances (November 2 - 4 - 8) ONLY!
use the code INFORMER when ordering tickets from Theatermania
and get $10.00 tickets!
 
The Faust legend meets 1984.  In an unnamed country (somewhere in the East, it seems) at an unnamed time (sometime in the last 100 years, it seems) at an unnamed scientific Institute, a respected scientist, Dr. Henry Foustka, has begun to dabble in the Black Arts.  His efforts may be an earnest attempt to contact another world, or merely a scientific experiment, but he does succeed in making a stranger appear, Fistula, a strange man who may indeed be (as he claims) a successful sorcerer, but more likely is merely an informer for the Authorities with a smelly foot disease.  When the Director of the Institute discovers Foustka’s private (and quite illegal) studies, the doctor is forced to walk a thin line, playing both sides against each other in an increasingly complex game as he attempts to save his job, his career, his reputation, his love life, and especially his neck by acting as a double agent for both sides, increasingly losing sight of what his original intentions were in the first place.
 
This is the world of Ian W. Hill’s new production of Václav Havel’s Temptation – a world where the Truth is feared and people need to become liars, cheats, hustlers, and informers merely to survive, even in the ivory tower of scientific research.  Where even your closest friends and colleagues can’t be trusted.  Where independent thought is crushed under the foot of State-authorized dogma.  Where fools who speak approved “truths” without understanding them are rewarded, while geniuses who dare to try to understand forbidden “foolishnesses” are destroyed.  Perhaps this is Theatre of the Absurd, but how absurd is it really?
 
In honor of Václav Havel’s 70th birthday and his concurrent residency at Columbia University, Untitled Theater Company #61 and other artists and companies have come togther to present, for the first time anywhere, the complete plays of Václav Havel.  With one world premiere, five English language premieres and five other new translations, this is a must-see event for fans of Havel, political theater, absurdist theater, or simply theater in general.  Sixteen fully-staged productions are being mounted in Manhattan and Brooklyn, as well as a variety of other events honoring Václav Havel's political and artistic career. Come experience this once in a lifetime opportunity to experience all of Havel's  works and to learn about an important artist and world leader in depth. 
 
MORE INFO:
 
On Vaclav Havel:
http://www.vaclavhavel.cz/index.php?&setln=2
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaclav_Havel
 
On The Havel Festival:
http://www.untitledtheatre.com/havel/havel-festival.html
 
On Gemini CollisionWorks and Temptation:
http://collisionwork.livejournal.com
 

Edward Einhorn, artistic director of Untitled Theatre Co. #61 and The Havel Festival (and director of two shows in the Festival, The Memo and Audience),

Henry Akona, assistant artistic director of The Havel Festival (and director of A Butterfly on the Antenna),

and myself, artistic board member of UTC#61, producer with Gemini CollisionWorks (and director of Temptation),

were interviewed by Michael Criscuolo for nytheatre.com's "NYTHEATRECAST" feature.


You can listen to it here (direct link to the mp3), or go by way of the nytheatre.com homepage, or the nytheatrecast page. It's 18 minutes, 13 seconds long. I think we gave a pretty nice overview of the Fest.

Almost 4.30 am, just back from the theatre.


We painted the two endtables, and I put together the two rolling 8' x 6.5' screens. We stopped at Lowes on the way there to pick up the materials, and spent some time refiguring how the screens were going to work. They're made out of electrical conduit pipes and connectors, and though it seemed it should work, these kind of things only seem to work out as you think they will about 30% of the time, if that. Usually, you put it together, it doesn't really work, and you go through a whole bunch of "fixing it" steps to make it work, just passibly.


We got lucky, the screens work PERFECTLY, in fact, better than I thought they would. Berit and I are both very surprised and very pleased.


So, all keeps going well. Should be sleeping, but I still need to wind down a bit. Still got nine hours till rehearsal; I'll get the sleep I need. Maybe.

Oh, I have to recommend a show I saw last week and keep forgetting to . . .


Buffon Glass Menajoree at The Brick.


I've included all the pertinent info below from the show's email press release, but to add a personal note--


I have an overwhelming and (in light of the work itself) unreasonable HATRED for The Glass Menagerie. It may have started way back in 9th Grade when I lost a public speaking contest at Greenwich Country Day School to Alexa Boer that I SHOULD HAVE WON DAMMIT. She did a scene of Laura and Amanda from Menagerie, I did a couple bits from Herb Gardner's A Thousand Clowns. I should have won.


Now, yes, this is well over 20 years ago, and unreasonable . . . but the sting lingers.


I also worked on a production of it as a techie at Northfield Mount Hermon in 11th Grade, and had to sit through it quite a few times, and in my first term at NYU I had to direct a scene from in in my first term directing class.


I respect what the show was for its time, and why it holds its position in the history of The American Theatre.


I despise it.


I despise all the Wingfields, I despise Jim O'Connor, I despise every bit of once-innovative theatrecraft that has hardened into the cliched forms of theatre that I hate above all else. I hate Laura's syrupy pitifulness, I hate her glass menagerie, I want her to shut the fuck up about pleurosis or blue roses or whatever the fuck, just STOP YER DAMNED WHINING! I hate the lights of the dancehall, I hate the portrait of Father, I hate the shoe store, and I hate "blow out your candles, Laura!"


It has been a VERY VERY long time since I have laughed as loud, as full, as happily and as full of enjoyable negativity as I have as at this show. It gives the Williams play what for in every possible deserved way, and probably plenty of undeserved ones. It is NASTY. And as someone not always hugely into nasty or confrontational theatre, and worried it would not be for me, it completely won me over (after making me terribly scared and disturbed for a few minutes at the start).


The cast is terrific all around, but I have to say that Audrey Crabtree's portrayal of Laura as a drooling, potentially-violent mental defective gave me particular satisfaction. They also picked a perfect person from the audience to play Jim the night I saw it, an actor who entered into the spirit of the thing completely, and remembered just enough of the play to keep it moving.


Also, they toss you free cans of beer. Budweiser, granted, but still . . .


I hope that helps sell it somewhat. Here's the info:


**********


Bouffon Glass Menajoree


a parody of a beloved American Classic


”Yes, it is total theatrical sacrilege, and, I am forced to admit, delicious ... sublimely funny and unexpectedly witty. ”
-nytheatre.com


Gentlemen callers beware: The Wingfields plume their nest with broken glass, twisted morals, and perverted minds. Each night a new audience member will get to play the role of Jim, the gentlemen caller. Tom, Amanda and Laura claim no responsibility for your hurt feelings or offended sentiments. Tennessee Williams is spinning in his grave. Why would anyone do this to an American Masterpiece?


Featuring Lynn Berg, Audrey Crabtree, Aimee German.
Directed by Eric “Red Bastard” Davis.



What can I expect?

The Wingfield apartment is composed of a broken dream catcher, woven from the clotheslines of this American family’s dirty laundry, washed in the antiquated colors of a long forgotten photograph. These three bouffons invite you to be a fly on the wall as they attempt to lure a gentlemen caller for their precious Laura. Audiences take heed you just might be the one to get caught in their wickedly funny web.



What is bouffon?

Director Eric Davis says: “Grotesque in nature, often physically deformed, the bouffon is the outcast shunned by society and told to live outside of the village. On rare occasions, they are asked to perform for the pleasure of those who previously persecuted them. The bouffons willingly accept. (What choice do they have? Perform or be killed!) Thus, these hideous creatures enter the circle of society once more, light on their feet, eternally smiling with hateful eyes. Charming, entertaining and smart, they plan to take the piss out of you all!”



Who is this group?

Director Eric “The Red Bastard” Davis, Lynn Berg, Audrey Crabtree and Aimee German worked on the clown and bouffon inspired Deenie Nast, a multimedia comic-biography of a mega-celebrity, and in the form of Commedia Del’ arte they performed together as Arlecchino, Sister Betty, & Tartaglia at the Lucille Lortel Theatre in the original play, Saint Arlecchino. The trio of performers has worked as a group, in pairs or solo in clown and bouffon at CBGB's, The Bowery Poetry Club, Galapagos, Parkside Lounge, The Improv, UCB, The Pit and at the monthly Kick-ass Clown Cabaret at CRS. All four of the collaborators have studied clown and bouffon with Master Teacher Sue Morrison, and have extensive training and performance history in improvisation and acting.



at

The Brick Theater
575 Metropolitan Ave.,
Williamsburg, Brooklyn 11211
½ a block from the Lorimer stop of the L train
http://www.bricktheater.com/


Fridays October 20, 27 & November 3, 10th @ 10:30pm
Nov. 17th, 11:30pm


70 minutes




All tickets $10


Tickets available at the door or through theatermania.com (212-352-3101 or toll-free: 1-866-811-4111)

Well, these are okay photos, but I gotta find some of the good ones, or make some new, better ones.


Somewhere there's a bunch of prints from before we had the digital camera (which is currently busted), and I should dig them out.


In the meantime, here's Hooker, in a mood.





Here's Moni, in a regular pose of hers:





And here they are as the Amazing Two-Headed Cat Graft:

Well, last night's rehearsal didn't go as planned.


I got text messages from Danny and Christiaan that they'd both be out sick with the damn thing that's going around, and Roger was unable to be at rehearsal to begin with, so we were left with almost nothing that we could rehearse productively. So I had to send home Maggie, Jessi, Eric, Aaron, and Fred, and just work the two Foustka/Vilma scenes with Walter and Alyssa.


As I've somewhat mentioned, these scenes are delicate and require a certain amount of spontaneity that gets lost in repeated rehearsals. Walter and Alyssa really "know" the scenes by now, and we can really only do each scene twice at most, discuss what's working and what's not, and move on -- any more than that, and the scenes become self-conscious and not what we're trying to do.


So we did each scene once, I think, and the opening of one scene a second time, and discussed a few subtle things, and that was pretty much what we could do. Walter had a great idea about a second meaning for one of his lines in another scene, which neither I nor Alyssa had thought of, but both of us were enthusiastic about. Walter also had some questions about his blocking during his long speeches in the office, and wondering if he was wandering around too much. I didn't think so, and (somewhat unintentionally - I was on my feet and in position) demonstrated how I thought the movement in those scenes worked best, and it seemed Walter "got it" better as a result


I really try to avoid giving line readings, or even the physical equivalent of "line readings," but sometimes it just happens, and more often than not it actually does work and speeds things along.


Frustrating not to do what I expected, but at least actual good productive work happened. I felt better by the time we were working.


Since we were done really early, and I had paid for the space, Berit and I left Walter there to work alone as he wanted to, and went home. Checking in on blogs I found a great piece by Matt Zoller Seitz on one of my favorite films, Kiss Me Deadly, and as usual when that film comes into my head, I have the immediate urge to watch it right then and there (the other film that does this for me is Lost Highway). So I put it on and enjoyed it again.


Today, Berit doesn't feel well but can't tell if she's coming down with the same ick as everyone else or it's just allergies. To a lesser extent, me too. I was planning to type up and send out some emails about costumes/props and other things that are needed to the cast, but haven't got round to it. Must do it tonight. Berit and I are going to go over to The Brick shortly and drop off some of our set pieces. The house light designer, James Bedell, is supposed to be there, hanging the house plot for the Havel Festival, and if he needs any help I'll lend a hand (I also got the wonderful news that James has been told about my desire to have at least 8 practical edison plugs on stage controllable from the board and is indeed setting that up! YES! I was really worried it wasn't going to happen, for some reason).


I have GOT to get cheerier about this show. There's no good reason for me to be moping around when it's going better than usual, at least as far as what I normally have to worry about is concerned.


Tomorrow, maybe more work at the space. Saturday, fight choreography with Walter and Alyssa under the direction of the great Qui Nguyen. Then scene work with Walter and Timothy. Sunday . . . and I cross my fingers on this one . . . a full-cast run. For real.

Shoot -- wireless out again, so I wrote this hours ago and only now just ponged it over to the dial-up-compatible old PC we keep around.


Okay, so now we have 16,988 songs on the iTunes. I've thrown on a lot of albums that I intended to chop tracks off of later. I also included lots of tracks that I wouldn't normally think of as anything I really liked, but that I thought would be a nice change-up when they came up randomly amongst everything else.


This morning's Random 10 is what happens when iTunes decides to give you nothing but a bunch of these tracks. Ugh. If there had just been a couple tracks with loud guitars in here, or a real BEAT, it would have made the rest okay, but as it stood?


1. "Damnation's Cellar" - Elvis Costello and the Brodsky Quartet - The Juliet Letters
2. "El Tonto de la Colina" - Robertha - Rato's Nostalgia Collection 21
3. "(All I Can Do Is) Dream You" - Roy Orbison - Mystery Girl
4. "Gonna Give Her All the Love I've Got" - Benny Gordon - Soulin' vol. 4
5. "Taxman" - The Music Machine - Turn On
6. "Everything Right Is Wrong Again" - They Might Be Giants - Then: The Earlier Years
7. "Africa Bamba" - Santana - Supernatural
8. "Prove My Love" - Violent Femmes - Violent Femmes
9. "Delicate Cutters" - Throwing Muses - In a Doghouse
10. "There Have Been Bad Moments" - Mike Keneally - Boil That Dust Speck


Again, ugh. I mean, the Music Machine and Violent Femmes tracks kinda rock, but not hard enough to raise the overall lugubriocity level of the run. And when I skipped forward after this to get to something . . . PEPPY . . . the first thing I got was Glenn Miller's "Stardust." Jeez! It took about 20 skips to finally get to something that might help wake me up -- a nice run of The Cramps, Dick Dale, and Southern Culture on the Skids (doing a Link Wray tune).


We're coming up on 60 gigs in the iTunes. When it hits, I start culling. Now I have some good ideas where to start.

Well, didn't expect to do this for two posts in a row, but Lucas continues with interesting words that are at the heart of my concerns with Theatre, and I felt the need to comment on them, twice. And not move the comments over here, as they work best in context with Lucas' post and comments.


So please read Lucas on Lighting the Body in Space (part 1).


Now I have to get to rehearsal.

So, Temptation.  We open three weeks from tonight.

The show goes well, and best of all, I have all the speaking roles (and the most important non-speaking role) cast, and cast well.  We've been joined by Eric C. Bailey, who was in World Gone Wrong, as Neuwirth, Tim Cusack (of Theatre Askew and many, many past collaborations, and friendship) as The Dancer, and my friend of 23 years, Aaron Baker (who I Iast directed in The Skin of Our Teeth at Northfield Mount Hermon School when we were both 17) as The Secret Messenger.

Aaron and Eric joined us last night, and fit right in and immediately got all the nuances and comedy out of their "small" parts that I thought would be there, even if no one I tried to cast previously could see it.

I'm still short the roles of The Lovers -- I got an email from Edward Einhorn's assistant director today offering to pass on people who had been interested in the non-speaking roles in The Memo, so I said, yeah, great.

But people have been vanishing upon learning that the roles basically consist of making out for ten minutes at center stage in one scene, and dancing behind a scrim in another.  I'll find the people, I'm sure.  Just wish I had them NOW.

Today, catching up on paper business for the show.  Really, I've done most of what I can that way (form and documents to Equity for showcase; form to Samuel French for rights; form to my insurance company to reup the GCW volunteer policy; press release out), and I'm playing the waiting game on docs I need back from them, so really it's just catching up on what needs to go where next, and when, once everything is indeed back to me.  I was hoping to get started on the set build for the show this week, but rehearsal in the space last night kinda made it clear I'm going to have to hold off on that.

Between the three shows in the space now (or coming up next week) and the pieces Michael Gardner's been bringing in for his HavelFest production of The Mountain Hotel, there's no damned room for me to store anything I would build in there just yet.  So I guess I wait a week or so . . . damn, for once I had the money, the time, the energy, and the equipment to get things done well in advance of schedule, and now I just don't have the space to get these things done.

However, Michael has a couple of terrific lamps he's found for his show that would also work great for mine, so I have to ask him about sharing those.

Since the last time I wrote anything on the show, I've had a couple of rehearsals for the Foustka/Fistula scenes with Walter and Timothy, which have shaped up very nicely.  Not as immediately together as the Foustka/Vilma scenes -- a lot more tweaking and discussion of emotional beats had to go on -- but by the time we left them, they were mostly on their way.

Last Tuesday, the 3rd, we rehearsed in cramped conditions at Jessi's apartment, as she's still recovering from foot surgery.  Cramped, but enough productive work happened to make it worthwhile, and we had some good cast "bonding" (and a tasty and incredibly rich birthday cake for Jessi).  Wine flowed as we worked, and while I don't think anyone was acting (or directing) drunk, it felt somehow civilized and relaxed.

The following night, I was supposed to meet with Alyssa and Walter for their scenes at The Brick, but two problems came up -- first, Alyssa was sick and couldn't show up, so Walter and I decided to meet and go over all of his monologues in depth; unfortunately (second problem), Michael had made a mistake in the schedule at The Brick, and had a rehearsal of his own in there at the same time. 

But it worked out for the best, Walter and Berit and I worked in the space for an hour before Michael's group came in, then the three of us went down to the Kellogg Diner for dinner and coffee, and to do detailed table work on the script, and Walter's speeches and character arc as Foustka (and Michael and I checked and there will be no more double-bookings in the space).

I used to always do private table work one-on-one with every actor in every show I directed, but I've found it less and less necessary the last few years.  I may have been very wrong in this.  The time Berit and I spent with Walter was incredibly productive in terms of clarifying things for Walter regarding the character.  I think I used to do it more because I was more often directing shows that had "characters" in situations but not much in the way of "plot," and cast members really needed to know who the hell they were, as the text didn't give them many clues.  So we would clarify what the character was going through for the actor, and even if it wasn't literally "understandable" for the audience what was going on, it made emotional sense and was satisfying in the right ways.

Directing a mostly straight narrative play such as Temptation makes me take for granted the need for that kind of character work, when the characters seem to be so clearly defined by the text.  But with a character like Foustka, who can be played in a million ways, with a million intentions, it was indeed valuable to sit and make sure Walter and I were on the same page.

And now we are.  So, the show is moving along -- I also worked this week with Maggie and Walter on the Mrs. Houbova/Foustka scenes, which took a little thought and tweaks to make work, and oddly had more potential options that would work than a lot more "substantial" scenes in the show.  Maggie made a strong and good choice for Mrs. Houbova, and that immediately made the scene focused a certain way that works (and gave Walter some good opportunities to show off aspects of his character that feed into the rest of the show).  Last night was the first time we basically had the whole group for the large group scenes, and they really began to take off; unfortunately we don't have more time with the group until next Monday.  I need to work fast on those scenes.  Faster than I did last night.

I lose Berit on the 23rd, too, which will be a pain, as she goes over to house manage the shows at The Ohio.  The credit I've settled on for the two of us now on our shows is "designed and directed by Ian W. Hill, assisted by Berit Johnson," which is both completely accurate and not quite right as regards our working relationship.  It's a bit more  . . . connected than that.  But this is long enough for now; I'll try to explain Berit's and my partnership in work some other time.